The 9 meter hybrid parabolic solar concentrator (solar dish) continuously tracks the sun throughout the day using a dual axis tracker enabling the system to harvest maximum solar energy from early sunrise to late sunset. Most solar concentrator tracking technologies use an actuator for vertical tracking. The 9 meter solar concentrator uses a slew drive instead of an actuator for rock-solid reliability and more accurate control of the movement. Regardless of the season or latitude, the solar concentrator maintains a 0.1 degree sunlock accuracy.
As the solar concentrators follows the sun, the sun’s solar energy shines onto the collector, which has a highly reflective surface, and reflects the concentrated solar power onto a receiver at a magnification of 1000 X.
The advantages of a hybrid solar concentrator is that it can provide solar electricity and solar thermal power. A solar power plant can use the concentrating solar power for solar water desalination which further adds to the versatility of the system compared to conventional PV panels, solar parabolic trough, cpv fresnel systems, or solar power towers.
How a Solar Concentrator Works With HCPV / CPV Multi-junction Solar Cell Technology
In solar power plant applications that require solar electricity, the solar concentrator focus the light to the CPV Dense Array Module. A CPV Dense Array module consists of many multi-junction solar cell assemblies (triple junction solar cell) packaged onto one 10″x10″ module. The triple junction solar cell converts the concentrated solar power light into electricity. The advantage of using a CPV dense array module compared to fresnel cpv systems is that it is compact, low cost, and low maintenance.
How a Solar Concentrator Works With Direct Heat and A Free Piston Stirling Engine
In solar power plant applications that require only direct heat to power a system such as a stirling engine, the SolarBeam focuses all the concentrated solar power on the receiver head of the stirling engine. With a magnification of 1000 X and temperatures up to 800 Celsius, the heat generated by the sun’s energy, forces a piston to move which in turn spins a turbine that generates electricity.
How a Solar Concentrator Works With Thermal Fluid Heating
In solar power plant applications that utilize the high temperature heat such as ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle), a circulating pump circulates the thermal fluid through the absorber and the sun’s solar concentrated power heats up the fluid as it passes through.
The hot thermal fluid is circulated via a pump to a primary heat exchanger that transfers the thermal energy produced from the solar concentrator to the various applications. The cooled water is then recirculated back to the absorber where it starts the heating process again.
